Blessing

When I think of “Blessing” I think about making something holy with a special prayer. I am a priest and this is what we do. Making something holy means recognizing the presence of God in the holy object. We recognize the presence of God in the bread and the wine since God is the creator of the wheat and the fruit of the fine. It also means setting aside, making it special. We do this every Sunday when we bless the bread and wine of communion. We acknowledge the real presence of God in these things that God has given us from the creation.

We have all received God’s blessing. We have been given life. We are all special and we all contain the presence of God.

Sometimes we don’t believe it. We don’t feel the presence of God and God can seem very far away.

Prayer is the way to finding our blessings. One form of prayer is to acknowledge the blessings of this life every day. Some people call this a gratitude journal. It is life-changing. When we focus on our blessings we see where God is working and we build this sense of gratitude that helps us understand our own place in the world.

What blessings are you counting today? How can you extend blessings to others?